My goal for DNP studies at XXXX University is to be the finest DNP possible. I am currently serving as an RN on a psychiatric unit working with patients in acute crisis. Raised in a family of humanistic and holistic healers, the daughter of a nurse educator, and the sister of a nurse midwife—my father, a dentist, also inspired me to focus on the underserved. I have witnessed at close hand the fulfillment that accompanies a career in health care. I have learned a great deal about healing not only as a nursing professional and volunteer, but also as a patient, battling depression and an eating disorder as an adolescent and young adult. Successfully overcoming my battle against depression and my related eating disorder also helps to explain my dedication to the cause of psychiatric nursing.

Along with my entire family, I have been heavily involved with the Haitian Health Foundation (HHF) for many years and I have personally had the privilege of going on 3 mission trips for 2 weeks each. My experiences in Haiti represent some of the highest moments of my life, the part of my professional existence that provides me with the most meaning and satisfaction. My fondest dream as a volunteer is advancing the cause of mental health nursing in Haiti, a goal which is rooted in my first trip to Haiti as a high school student in 1996. I helped to inform expectant mothers and assisted nurses and doctors with pre-natal care, traveling to remote villages to help dentists as they extracted decaying teeth from hundreds of patients, holding patients’ hands, reassuring. Here at home, I have also volunteered at the XXXX House, an organization which provides HIV supportive services to encourage and empower. I helped to prepare meals and to educate patients about medication, co-morbidities, and self-care, as well as providing a listening ear.

I hope to complete my Capstone Project in the area ofcrisis intervention and acute care stabilization. While I am confident that the distinguished faculty at XXXX University will help me to greatly refine my ideas, I hope to develop an additional focus on the subject of the effectiveness of trained peer mentors as members of treatment teams. I hope to shed light on the extent to which peer-mentors help patients to achieve a sustained recovery. This line of inquiry is motivated by my suspicion that trained peer mentors do indeed often play useful if not vital roles in recovery over the long term.

Long term career goals: I hope to spend many decades to come giving my all to my patients in a residential facility or outpatient clinic in which I have the opportunity to work closely with patients with mental illness and care for them long enough so as to make major contributions to their successful stabilization, physically and emotionally, along with subsequent recovery for many. I live to help patients develop the tools that are necessary for recovery and the avoidance of recidivism, patience, honesty, and accountability. I enjoy the challenge of our field, its complexity, and the way in which the DNP professional must depend upon a a variety of disciplines in order to provide optimal care for her patients, including but not limited to counseling/psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, behavior modification, health maintenance.

I believe that I have now developed the excellent communication skills, practiced patience, and capacity to care that will enable me to distinguish myself as a DNP professional. I know with certainty that once I receive the necessary education, I will run with it as far as I can and find the most noble form of satisfaction and contentment helping people to learn how to stop suffering. I can imagine no higher form of compensation.